Joseph Nana Kwame Awuah-Darko, also known as Okuntakinte, is best known as a Ghanaian social entrepreneur, artist, and philanthropist. He was born in Middlesex, London on 31 August 1996. He started his music career professionally in late 2015 when he was signed with Meister Music Management which also manages artists like Mr. Eazi . He released his major hit Melanin Girls in January 2016, which was received with controversy as much as with appreciation.
Early life and education
Awuah-Darko was born in London, and then when he was five, his family moved to Ghana. He attended Ghana International School, where he grew into his love for music. When then-US President George W. Bush visited Ghana in 2008, Joseph was asked by his former school to sing the national anthem of Ghana, God Bless Our Homeland Ghana. In 2009, he went on to star in a production of 'The Music Man' by the National Theatre of Ghana, and for his role, he was given the award for the 'Most Versatile Actor'.Joseph enrolled into Ashesi University in Ghana where he studied business administration and liberal arts. He graduated in 2018.
Music career
His musical influences and artistic influences include Nat King-Cole, Amy Winehouse and Fela Kuti. Before he was into music, Joseph was also doing abstract art, and he coincidentally met his manager Meister through this.
On 29 January 2016, Joseph released his music video Melanin Girls, which garnered a lot of media attention. It also sparked an intriguing social media campaign which encouraged dark-skinned girls to post photos of themselves with the possibility of winning a thousand Ghana Cedis.
The song served as an anti-bleaching campaign and attracted interest even from BBC World Service presenter Nuala McGovern who went on to feature the young artiste on BBC Outside Source. He also went on release songs Black Magic, DeCoco, Summer of X and Bila Majina. He has collaborated with South African artiste Moonchild on a remix of Melanin Girls to develop more awareness about the dangers of skin bleaching. And he looks forward to working with other artists like Mr. Eazi and M.anifest and Efya.
In 2006, he signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV in South Africa who also have artists like D'banj on their shoulders.
Singles
Melanin Girls
Black Magic
DeCoco
Summer of X
Melanin Girls Remix
Bila Majina
Performances
He performed at the 2016 annual Sabolai Radio festival. The same year in July he also performed at the Kristal Bar in Accra.
Philanthropy
Entrepreneurship: The Agbogblo Shine Initiative. This is a non-profit organization co-founded by Joseph in January 2017, which “seeks of fund social enterprises and projects dedicated to applying design thinking to solve problems regarding e-waste.” He started this initiative with several Ashesi students and they aim to turn e-waste found at the Agbogbloshie dump site into high-end furniture. For his efforts in climate action and environmental conservation, Joseph became the youngest person in history recognised by the West African Business Excellence Awards and was awarded "Most Promising Social Entrepreneur" in May of 2018.
Other interests
Joseph stars in the documentary 'It's Okay' in which he talks about mental health in Africa to be released on 18 May 2018.
Accolades
Joseph was invited to go to the London School of Economics Africa Summit along with Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo to talk on the Agbogblo Shine Initiative and his entrepreneurial works. He was selected as one of the 21 Emerging African Contemporary Artists by the Mastercard Foundation in their publication, 'Hope, Energy and Ingenuity'.
